NETT at Escarpment, Jay, Mass State Tri

Well, no one can say NETT members shy away from tough races!

Paul Young made his annual trip out to the Escarpment Trail run, the toughest 30K most folks will ever run. Unfortunately, it looks like this year, the course that Paul has eaten up so many times took a bite out of him and he ripped up an ankle pretty bad after starting out very well. {Official results to come}

Jennifer Shultis cracked the top 10 women at the Jay Challenge, finishing 7th female and 36th overall in 6:52. Yes, that's 6:52 for a 50Kish race--it's a BEAR!

Dave Guertin put in a top-50 showing at the Massachusetts State Triathlon in Winchendon.

Frank White breaks 11 hours at Ironman Lake Placid

Congrats to Frank White for finishing the Ironman Lake Placid this weekend in 10:55. Frank's overall place was 176th out of more than 2,000 (I think)

Congrats to Mr. Young on winning the Showcase 5 Miler

Congratutations to Paul Young on his impressive wire-to-wire victory at the Showcase 5 Miler in Reading last night. Paul came in at just sub-6 pace to win at 29:55. According to a race review by Dave Camire of Coolrunning,"The 41-year old Andover resident took the lead from the start and was never challenged as he won by one minute and 27 seconds.

Now I won't say anything about his attire in the picture here... but I'm SURE someone else will! RIGHT?

Congrats Paul---keep kicking the crap out of those young punks!

(Photo: Coolrunning.com)

NETT’s off-road multisport contingent doesn’t quite “dominate”

The Russian Rocket, Dmitry Drozdov and the goddess of LSD (that’s “long, slow distance” for those who don’t know and not a drug reference, although the drugs might cause less bodily harm and almost certainly be more enjoyable), Jennifer Shultis, headed to Poland, Maine this past weekend for some off-road run at the Xterra Agazzis Village on Sunday, July 15th. The impetuous for the trip was Jen’s friend, Anne Murrock, whose knees no longer allow her to do the run in road triathlons, so she bought a mountain bike in hopes that she could handle the trail run at the end. After a 6-week “crash course” in mountain biking, this weekend would be the true test of that theory.

After a bike course test-ride on Saturday night and a pre-race meal at the local Gritty’s brewery (did you know it’s only $1 more to upgrade to a 25 ounce beer from a pint??) all three retired to the luxurious Super 8 where they warmed up their fancy footwork by convincing the hotel clerk that there were only two and not three in the room—who wants to pay an extra $10 if they don’t have to?

Upon arriving at the race site on Sunday morning, Jennifer was almost immediately faced with what would be her first and most significant challenge for the day—to beat an adventure racing rival who is eons faster than her and who now showed up having given birth 6 weeks ago. This woman could kick her butt soundly any day of the week normally, but to lose to a woman who might have to stop in transition to pump breast milk would be a new all time low on the shame meter. In an effort to minimize all stress so she could focus on this one challenge, Jen decided to opt out from wearing a wetsuit as the effort involved in squeezing into it could potentially leave her too wiped for the swim.

Dmitry, who rarely swims, decided he could figure it out and he did before the second buoy. Jennifer, a professed swim-hater, did “fine for me,” and it was Anne who beat them both out of the water. However, after Anne’s wetsuit wrestling match, all three ended up running their bikes out onto the bike course together. The first part of the mt bike loop was pretty technical, so the three decided the night before that they would simply run their bikes the first ¼ mile of trail along the lake where it was nearly unrideable, instead of wasting time getting on and off their bikes. After being initially cautious, Anne found herself able to ride much more on the second loop (it was a two-loop bike course). Dmitry did some strategizing on hills to run his bike up rather than burning out his legs riding and Jennifer heard the angels sing when she passed her rival on the first loop of the mountain bike.

The trail run, advertised as being 4 miles ended up as a flat 3 miler, but its highly technical footing lent itself nicely to Jennifer and Dmitry’s skill set. Its springiness was just what Anne needed and she crossed the finish-line beaming 2 hours and 34 minutes after the gun went off to take second in her age group. Dmitry was 3rd in his very tough age group, after putting in the fastest run of the day (surprise, surprise…) in 1:46. Jennifer finished second (of two!) in her age group in 2:03. After a disappointing stop on the way home at Poland Spring (what do you mean you don’t have free water?!!?), all three hit stop number two on the micro-beer pub tour, Sebasco Bay Brewing Co in Portland, Maine, and agreed over raised glasses to make their next destination the August 12th Xterra Stoaked Triathlon (http://www.stoakedtri.com/). Hmm… now where is that Long Trail Ale brewery? Road trip anyone?

NETT DOMINATES Lowell Tri

I don't use a word like DOMINATE lightly, but three guys in the top five...1-2-3 on the bike splits (only three guys under 34 minutes on the bike, actually) and 1-4-8 on the run split? That's just what NETT did at the Mill City Triathlon in Lowell this weekend.

First and foremost, congrats to Paul Miller won the frickin thing outright with the fastest bike and run splits for the day. Toledo Joe had a phenomenal race finishing third overall with the second fastest bike split and fourth run split. And Jerry De Zutter finished 5th overall with the fifth fastest SWIM and third fastest bike split!

Toledo Joe and Jerry were also the first and second masters in the race too! Here's Joe's report:

"It was a really fun race, having all three of us up front for most of the race to motivate each other. Jerry and I were neck and neck (well, I followed him) on the swim, then we went back and forth on the bike. There was one guy up about 1 minute ahead of us on the bike. At about mile 8-9 on the bike Paul came up on us hard. I went with Paul and Jerry was just behind. The run was very hot, but Paul delivered his usual stellar run and caught the guy who was leading from the swim/bike. Jerry was close on me at mile 1 on the run and I picked it up a bit, knowing Jerry was within striking distance kept me moving. Great race to battle it out with your friends at several points during."


Man, how much more damage can one trio do in a race than THAT? Fantastic job guys!
And NETT's new pal David Guertin did some damage as well, finishing in the top 20 as a VERY newcomer to triathlon...expect great things from him under Jerry's watchful eye.

But perhaps more impressive than their times and places in the race is the fact that they did the race in the first place--I mean, they were brave enough to swim in the Merrimack Riv-ah as we call it up in the Valley...makes the hairs on my neck stand up!

NETT lifts off BalloonFest 5K and Indepdence 5K

NETT took two of the top 12 spots at the Hillsboro Balloonfest 5K in New Hampshire Friday night. Big Ben continued to show improving speed and made an improvement over his time from last year finsihing in 19:09, good for 12th place. Crazy Dave finsished 6th in an unimpressive 17:10, managing to hold off all babyjoggers and even the women in this run (new goals for races now).

It was a fun, low-key event for a Friday night. Unfortunately, despite the name, there were no balloons to be found--something about a balloon pilot's strike?? That certainly didn't keep the locals from getting high, however, as "ooh ooh that smell" was clearly present on several--yes several--spots on the out-and-back course.

Special thanks to Cindy and Doris for cutting the antiquing(is that a word) short to cheer us on!

Meanwhile on Thursday night up in Haverhill, Paul Young cranked out a sub-18 on the Indepdence 5K course, good for third master.

Marathon Sports 5 Miler reviews

NETT and its "extended family" had some good results out at the Marathon Sports 5 Miler Thursday night in Weston. Young John Kinnee continued to represent well with a 29:22 for 38th place out of more than 800 on the fairly hilly course.

NETT Ponyette Adrienne Cyrulik rocked the new NETT ladies' shirt (see photo) and, of course, ran a very strong race as a result, finsihing 25th among the women, knocking out 7 minute miles on the rolling hills of Weston.




NETT pals Karen Ringheiser and Marshall Randolph uknowingly finished in succession--128th and 129th. Karen was 12th female overall and second in her age group. Here's her report:
"I had lots of fun at Marathon Sports Race. I ran it as a tempo run, since I already ran that day. It's a huge race, I had no idea. I ran slightly slower than my Carlisle and Concord 5 milers, 33:13, 6:39 pace. That's ok, I knew I was running on tired legs. Placed 2nd in age group."
(Note the great photo of Marshall in the CSU shirt tucked in behind Karen in her BAA blues...I think BOTH would look much faster with a Coyote on their shirts..just my two cents!) And Battle Road run stalwart Dima Feinhous cranked out a 31:48 for the course as well.


And NETT's Roaving Reporter Rick Cleary made his annual appearance at the Marathon Sports race and filed this report:

My wife Ann and I share the same birthday, 7/12. Yesterday, as we turned a combined 95, our birthdays coincided with the Marathon Sports five mile road race in neighboring Weston, one of the nicest and most popular events on the Boston running scene. Always held at 7 pm on a Thursday, the race features everything that matters to us: family friendly room for the kids to run around, a nice course, good organization, a Clydesdale division and great post-race food. (Something for everybody, from Domino's pizza to artisan breads, lots of fruit, ice cream, trail mix packets ... ) Ann and I decided that we'd both run and bring a sitter along to monitor the kids, who love the sand jumping pits on the Weston High track. Several of our friends who race only rarely also came along for the event.
The course is fairly tough; no big hills but not many flat spots and the last mile goes from road to cross country around the Weston High athletic fields. I'd run 34:53 last year and thought perhaps I could break 35 again this time. Ann was hoping for sub-50. Check it off as two goals met:

-I ran 34:38, a fifteen second improvement. If I could do that every year for another 10 years I'd be pretty good again. Might have been better if I hadn't bolted out the first mile in 6:23. I ran that mile with my long time running pal Greg McGowan and it was just right for him, a bit fast for me. It was a big field, almost 900 finishers, and I was 163rd. I was 12th in M50-59 and 8th Clydesdale (190 and up.) When you combine the two groups, I won the 50 and over Clydesdale division by four minutes. There aren't that many old gluttons who still train, I guess. Greg wound up 111th in 32:39.


(Here's Rick hard at work with his signature orange hat on)
-Ann ran 47:54 to place 688th in her longest run of the year. She started out quite slowly and wisely passed a lot of people later on; pretty much the mirror image of my race. We're confident we won the "Couples both running on their birthday, combined age 95 or more division." Ann's good friend and running partner Megan Kerr ran a little over 42 minutes and was well in the top half of the F40-49 group. Between us and Megan's family, we had four boys four and under along to spectate and they did a great job. Eddie and Megan's son Henry, also 4, ran half a mile around the track before we raced and looked pretty tired afterwards!

Probably my next goal should be to get under 190 and stop running Clydesdale division events, but since that's unlikely I just signed up for "The Big Man Run"; the race that incorporates hot dog eating and beer drinking, in September.

Looking forward to seeing lots of old running pals next weekend at a big High Noon reunion in Ithaca.

Rick

(All photos courtesy of JimRhoades.com)

Crazy Dave Gives Peace a Tri

With the running results distinctly sub-par of late, I decided to move up my annual triathlon "experiment" this year and on a whim entered the Give Peace a Tri race up in Surry, N.H. just north of Keene.

Overall I give the race itself a 7 out of 10 rating. The location is very nice--a quiet (and warm!) pond with a nice beach at the start. Decent transitions (could have used a few more bike racks), bike course was nice and hilly and run course was fast (as in short). Post-race party was good--burritos for all! And a lot of peace-related literature and booths for us liberal types.

Drawbacks: they instituted an unnanounced race cap and I was literally the last person let into the race (had I been shut out after driving two hours at the crack of dawn Doris would likely have split my skull with a bike pump). But given the events down in Cohassett this weekend, I guess a cap is safer than allowing too many people and overcrowding the race.

For those interested, I finsihed top 20--I think--with a VERY poor swim time, a not quite terrible bike and the second or third fastest run split (unclear since they don't break out the transitions). Official results posted here. Unofficially, I had each of my transitions at about a minute so subtract a minute off both the bike (down to 24 mins) and run (down to 16 but I gotta figure that's a short course, 'cuz I aint runnin no 16 flat off the bike for 3 miles).

Also of note: The race was held in honor of Elijah Barrett, the Keene-area triathlete/trail runner/snowshoer/owner of Endurance Sports who's battling cancer right now. I'll work on getting the info for the charity and collect for an NETT donation to the regional cancer center he's at.

Big Leo puts mind over matter in the Blue Hills

One of the best things about being a competitive athlete is the ability to surprise ourselves. For some, it’s a faster time than we expected, but for most of us, it’s pushing ourselves to finish a race deep down we thought we might not be able to.

At about 30 minutes into the Blue Hills Skyline Trail Race, Big Leo Fahey was having those thoughts. He had jumped at the chance to run a challenging trail race when I emailed it out last week, but after running the first quarter of the race he clearly had some regrets. It was written all over his face. I know that look, too. It was the look I had on my face that time I was at Six Flags and got on a ride with no line without seeing what it did--and then realizing what I'd gotten into with no way of getting out of it...it's a look of concern, disappointment, frustration and a tiny bit of disgust.

For the uninitiated, the Blue Hills race is a very challenging 7.2 mile course over the skyline trail, filled with very steep climbs and a LOT of very technical footing—sharp rocks line the majority of the trail on this race. Winning times are over an hour, if that gives you an indication of the difficulty for even the most experienced trail runners. Let’s put it this way—not a lot of clydesdales in this one.

But Big Leo surprised himself (not me, I knew he’d get ‘er done) and toughed it out. He pushed himself HARD on the uphills and negotiated the technical downhills like a pro—you’ve never seen a guy this size dance downhill like he does, even when his legs are completely trashed. Even the long final descent down the ski hill Leo pushed himself to the limit.

In the end, Leo finished a race I am sure he didn’t think he’d finish on a hot day in July. It was two hours of torture, but when you get to our age, sometimes it’s hard to surprise ourselves. And when you do, it feels good.

Friends of NETT Karen Ringheiser and Dima Feinhaus both ran the Blue Hills race for the first time and did great--Karen winning the female Masters prize and Dima cruising through it smoothly (official results to come later)

July 4th race roundup

NETT divided up on July 4th to hit at least three races in the area.

The biggest contingent of MiniPonies gathered out at the Great Harvard 4th of July 5 Miler. Paul Miller led the charge taking 7th place in 28:13 (Note: Paul did NOT wear his Union Jack shirt in the 4th of July race).
Young John Kinnee was 17th overall in 29:43, just two spots in front of Jerry De Zutter, who cracked the top 20 in 30:27. Also putting in a solid race at Harvard was Toledo Joe Hardin, clocking a 31:47, while Big Leo Fahey ran 43:20 and Extra Irish Dave Burney put in a 46:33 effort.



Another major NETT contingent took to the roads at the Chelmsford, Mass. John Carson 2 miler, a hometown favorite for many NETT members. NETT stalwart Ben Winther teamed up with our pal Ryan Hunt to clock out 11:39 together—great to see the teamwork. And the Chamberas family--Anthony, Bridget and Thomas Chamberas--teamed up with Cindy Winther, running together to finish in 22:22 (if you look real close in this pic you can see Anthony pushing Thomas and Bridgie's tucked in back in the pink shirt--always so stylish). And Big Ben’s dad Ted was just a few clicks back as well--get that guy a singlet!!.

Out in Southbridge (wherever the hell that is) Dave Mingori represented well, clocking a 28:27 in the 58th Leonide J Lemire 4.9 Mile Road Race. Love to see that NETT floating in the CMS sea in the results. Nice work as always Dave.

Early reports from the Concord, Mass. race are that a timing clusterf-k caused everyone to pay their $20 entry fee but receive no results. Dima F and Karen Ringheiser swear they were there and ran it, though. We''ll take their words for it.

Paul Young took on a challenging 5-miler at the Sons of Italy race in Lawrence to finish 4th overall in 30:44 (when Patrick Moulton runs 27:35, you know it's a tough course!).

And down in Duxbury, Crazy Dave suffered through another near-PW clocking a 23:30 at the Duxbury Road Race, getting passed mid-way by a guy pushing a babyjogger--although he's been "practicing" for that moment in workouts for a couple weeks now thanks to Paul and Alex!



I’m SURE we missed a few others out there, so shoot me an email and give your race reports and results to share. Misery loves company and admitting it is the first step to recovery.

(Photos courtesy of JimRhoades.com. See his site for more pics of the Harvard and John Carson races!)

Frank KJ rips it up at Patriot Half-Iron

Congratulations to Frank Kjaersgaard for his fantastic performance at the Patriot Half Ironman triathlon in Freetown, Mass. on Sunday. Frank finished 15th overall in 4:50 and third in his age group.

Here's Frank's FULL REPORT:

"Sunday was the inaugural Patriot Half-Iron race on a great scenic course around Lakeville in perfect conditions. The water was choppy which I always like so I was happy with my time of 30 flat. Due to some last minute changes the bike course was 3.5-4 miles long. It is a two-loop course and I was feeling great (changed my bike setup just Friday morning) until around mile 18 when my gluteus and hamstring started give me a lot of grief and I had to start backing off to avoid further damage.

I averaged 22.8 mph for the first loop and only 20.4 mph for the second loop with my HR 10 bpm lower in average. It is a bit disappointing having all this energy but not being able to unleash it into the machine. Especially given that Tod Dillon (Team Psycho dude in my age-group) who I had passed at mile 10 came back and passed me just 2 miles before T2. I stayed with him until T2. While Tod blasted off on the run I made a looooong pee break right at the start of the run. I thought I would never see him again. I was moving well on the run and caught two guys in my age-groups. Suddenly around mile 11.5 I saw Tod up ahead. The gap was about 1:15 - equal to the time I had spent peeing ;-). He was moving slow so I put the hammer down and did my best to catch him. I took almost 40 seconds on him in the last stretch but couldn’t take the last 34 seconds. The run course was also long – around 13.5 miles. I had the 11th best run time. End result: 3rd place in my age-group and 15th overall."

See the full RESULTS here.